Laser Cutting, Why Space the Parts?

Thanks to the thinness of the laser trace. Then it is often possible to join the pieces to be cut. This saves time, material, energy, laser and mechanical wear, the diffusion of toxic gases...

Here are some examples of the arrangement of parts that give exactly the same result after cutting, but with different wastes. And it’s so easy to implement.

Depending on how you export the traces from your drawing software, there may be lines that overlap.

It is better to clean this to prevent the laser from passing through the same places.

For example, in Sketchup, you can avoid this at the export time. You have to explode objects and remove surfaces before exporting to DXF.

In RDWorks this is done very simply via "Delete Overlap" in the "Handle" menu and an error of 0.05 may often be appropriate. Obviously, you must have selected the path before.

In LightBurn, it’s a little less efficient. You have to first select the trace, then  "Alt-B" then reselect the trace, then "Alt-D". The majority of overlays are then eliminated. Alt-B is "Break appart" in the "Arrange" menu and Alt-D is "delete Duplicates" in the "Edit" menu.